Passover in Nazi Germany

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“Well, we crossed over the river into Germany.  And the first town of any consequence was called Dahn, Germany. And that was towards late March 1945. I had an interesting experience there. Once Dahn was under control and the German soldiers had retreated, our division, 42nd Infantry Division, was given a two-day rest period.

One of our division chaplains was named Rabbi Eli Bohnen, from Providence, Rhode Island.  He happened to be a favorite of our commanding general, Major General Harry J. Collins. Rabbi Bohnen and my brother and I became very close for a number of reasons. He had told us that when he was introduced originally to General Collins, Collins told him, first of all, he was not going to address him as chaplain or lieutenant. He was going to call him padre, which in Spanish is father. And he also told him that if he ever witnessed or heard about any antisemitic event, General Collins wanted to know about it immediately, and he would take appropriate action. Such a kind of person General Collins was. We knew that because Rabbi Bohnen was the one that told us this.  

Now Rabbi Bohnen looked at his Jewish calendar, and he said the next evening, which I think was either March 24th or 25th, was going to be the first night of Passover. If possible, he would like to have some kind of Passover service.  General Collins liked the idea. He gave permission to Chaplain Bohnen to accompany two trucks to France and acquire whatever he could. So, he was able to contact the Jewish War Board in France.  They arranged for freshly killed chickens, vegetables, and French wine. He also acquired a small prayer book, which is called a Haggadah, used for a Seder, brought back from France. And sure enough, we had a Seder the next evening in an old school building.

Well, Chaplain Bohnen had this little Haggadah, a number of pages, it's a prayer book, all in Hebrew. Needing to make copies, he found a mimeograph machine that was dusty and dirty. They went looking for rags to clean the machine, but all they could find was a Nazi flag. That's what they used to clean that mimeograph machine. They made about 800 copies, because we had about 800 soldiers show up. Not only from our division, but from other units within a 30 - 40 radius.  General Collins was there in attendance, made a very nice speech. Our assistant division commander, General Henning Linden, was there.  And it turned out to be, as far as we were concerned, a historic event, that to be held in Germany. I remember it very well.”  

Editor's Note: Passover is a Jewish holiday celebrated each spring to commemorate the biblical escape of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. According to a 1945 calendar, the first night of Passover actually occured on March 28 that year. Vice President Truman broadcast a Passover address to Jewish women and men in the Armed Forces on March 26 from Washington, D.C.